And then, two weeks later, he was again thrilled to receive an invitation to go to Sweden to address the Swedish-American Society. Modern mechanized armies need a robust logistics chain to provide fuel, ammunition, and other sinews of war to sustain combat operations. Daves Hot Chicken will have you begging for more, and maybe for mercy. His first words to his wife were, Im afraid, Bea, this may be the last time we see each other., Needless to say, rumors soon began to circulate that the accident that had led to Pattons death was no accident. When a reporter asked the rabbis why they prayed for an anti-Semite, they explained that Pattons generalship ended the war months earlier than it would have without him, thus saving the lives of thousands of concentration camp victims. All he did was help defeat the remnants of the Afrika Korps after it had already been defeated by British and Commonwealth forces. In that role he designed the U.S. Model 1913 Enlisted Cavalry Saber, known as the Patton Sword. Patton also loved polo, and he played it, like he pursued so many things, with a violent, reckless abandon, frequently injuring himself in the process. Just Berlin! Courtesy of The National Archives and Records Administration. Rather than IKE. But the end of the war with Japan only added to his low morale; on August 10 he wrote in his diary, Another war has ended and with it my usefulness to the world. When his wife asked about birthday plans he curiously responded: 'No Glenice. By: Martin Blumenson (author of: The Patton Papers). He accepted the job with the Fifteenth Army, explaining this away in his diary by writing that in resigning I would save my self-respect at the expense of my reputation but would become a martyr too soon. He went on in his diary to justify his acceptance of the Fifteenth Army command as follows: I was reluctant, in fact unwilling, to be party to the destruction of Germany under the pretense of denazification. Instead, the museum was temporarily closed, remodeled, and reopened in 2018 with a tighter emphasis on Patton himself. Model, Manstein, Guderian, Rommel, Kesselring and von Bock were the greatest generals of World War II. Patton obviously saw into the future and what the world would be like in our time with Russia and china. In the final minute of the ceremony, Master Sergeant William G. Meeks, the man who had served Patton faithfully as his orderly since April 1942, presented Beatrice with the flag that had draped the coffin. This has been a proud and wonderful day. But, in fact, Patton had put his foot in it again. By now Bedell Smith, Adcock, and others had come to the conclusion that Patton was mentally unbalanced. He recorded that the supreme commander made a speech which had to me the symptoms of political aspirations, on cooperation with the British, Russians and the Chinese, but particularly with the British. She was the wife of Brig. An M3 half-track bore Pattons flag-draped gunmetal casket, escorted by helmeted soldiers wearing white gloves. He had a degenerative form of dementia. She was dead within days. General Partin was the scientist who developed lasers, cluster bombs, cruise missiles and other precision-guided weapons. She wanted the body returned to the United States and buried near their Massachusetts home. It would be real fun killing Mongols. They are a scurvy race and simply savages. He was an exceptional warrior and leader. Best of regards, Sam Virzi, Hemet, CA. Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army, became military governor of the greater portion of the American occupation zone of Germany. In the aftermath of the Battle of Kasserine Pass, US II Corps passed to the command of General Harold Alexanders 18th Army Group. Pattons medical records for that day read, Prognosis for recovery increasingly grave. Spurling and the other doctors knew that it was impossible to operate to relieve the pressure on his badly damaged spinal cord to eliminate the paralysis. There he will have an honored place. When they were alone again, Patton suggested that he should be simply relieved, but Ike said he did not intend to do that and had had no pressure from the States to that effect. The commander of the U.S. Third Army, General George Patton, Jr., took no great pleasure in the end of the war in Europe; he already knew that despite his lobbying of many influential figures in Washington, D.C., he had no hope of being reassigned to the Pacific Theater to command combat troops there. Fortunately, the official aim of Pattons month-long leave was achievedhis enthusiastic oratory helped to sell millions of war bonds and he received a letter of thanks from Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. A great man should be remembered for ever. In the Meuse-Argonne offensive a few weeks later, Patton was badly wounded by a machine-gun bullet. His cross faces those of the men he led, as if he were leading them again for one last battle. George S. Patton, who was the son of the famous World War II General and who became a Major General in the Army himself, died June 27, 2004, at his home in Hamilton, Mass., at age 80. But over the years, certain circumstantial evidence has come forward from multiple sources that put that theory in a new light. She was the same age as Patton's daughters, and in her youth spent most of her holidays with the extended Patton family. From then on it was as wholeheartedly for him as the Third Army staff had been. But Patton was not really interested in an Army without weapons or a combat mission and consisting mainly of historians and an administrative staff. Needless to say, the press ran with this story, particularly the Democrat versus Republican analogy. On the 22nd, the day Stars and Stripes carried the headline PATTON DIES, she drove to Bad Nauheim to oversee her husbands effects being prepared for shipment back to their home in Massachusetts. He died from his injuries on December 21, 1945. I cant understand why Patton wasnt brought back to the US for burial at West Point, like his wife wanted. He did his job and did it well. This was, of course, completely contrary to the political direction he had received from Eisenhower for the denazification of the American zone of Germany. But Ive been in Garmish and numerous places where your Grandpa was and it ALWAYS moved me to tears! General Patton's Death - Accident or Murder? - YouTube Pattons personal residence was a palatial house on nearby Lake Tegernsee. His offensive minded spirit may have rubbed his G.I.s the wrong way as he did not want to let up on a beaten enemy in NW France, but his Third Army, in France and especially the brilliant pre-planning and performance before and during the Germans Wacht am Rhein Ardennes attack, no doubt saved many G.I.s at Bastogne. Shortly after Beatrice Patton buried her husband, Gen. George S. Patton Jr., she summoned a woman to her hotel room. At least, I have done my best as God gave me the chance.. In September, Patton returned to Berlin for a military review hosted by the legendary Marshal Georgi Zhukov. He shortened the war in Europe and saved many lives, civilian and military, while predicting what would happen if the Russians were given free reign. Part of Douglas Southall Freemans introduction to War As I Knew It, which was published in November 1947, reads: He undertook this small book after the close of hostilities and he drew heavily from [his] diary for detail. We must either finish the job nowwhile we are here and readyor later in less favorable circumstances. Needless to say, such ideas were totally unacceptable to the politicians in Washingtonand indeed to most of the American soldiers in Europe; all they wanted to do was to go home. But any satisfaction Patton might have derived from this report was to be short-lived. George S. Patton - Wikipedia Woodring was unable to stop in time, and the two vehicles collided at a 90-degree angle, with the right front bumper of the truck smashing the radiator and bumper of the Cadillac. George S. Patton Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family A comment now that time has given historians a bit more perspective. On D . When Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa led an attack on the border town of Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, Patton joined the staff of Brig. He was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant general in March 1943 and led the U.S. . Patton did not remain in his plot for long. The latter then skillfully and ruthlessly demonstrated that the Fritz Schaeffer administration in Bavaria was full of former Nazis. For the next 12 days, Patton lay in traction, at times with painful fishhooks implanted into his cheeks on either side of his upper jaw, attached to weights to stabilize his neck. After satisfying himself about the correctness of the complaints, Patton immediately ordered action to rectify the situation and then went further, ordering that the starvation diet, which was described by one former senior German officer as not enough to live on, but too much to die on, should be supplemented by American Army rations. On November 11, Pattons 60th birthday, he was thrilled to find his staff had arranged a surprise party. It is also of interest that Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmlers wife had lived in another house on the lake, as had the wife of the infamous Waffen SS Kampfgruppe commander Jochen Peiper. While there I was taken by wheelchair to a room which was supposedly that of the hospital room where General Patton had died. American Generals Omar Bradley (1893 - 1981) and George Patton (1885 - 1945) with Secretary of War Henry Stimson (1867 - 1950) It wasn't until 1993 that the first non-fiction book solely on this topic appeared: Death - The Murder of General Patton, privately published by Stephen J. Skubik. PDF Patton Faked his Death Patton was greeted by the chief of staff of the Army and eight former members of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon team and was later received by the king and the crown prince. We came to give them back the right to govern themselves. A blood clot in his paralyzed body had worked its way to his heart, stopping it and ending the life of one of America's greatest battlefield commanders. Laterwhile attending the Mounted Service School in Fort Riley, KansasPatton was designated an instructor of swordsmanship and received the title Master of the Sword. Pattons supporters claim that the Cold War may have unfolded differently had the West taken the capital, but this largely ignores the military situation on the ground in eastern Europe. Thank you so much for this comprehensive and heartfelt and I would have to say incredibly accurate account of my grandfathers final days. Advance elements of the Third Army reached Bastognes tenacious defenders on December 26, and additional reinforcements followed over subsequent days. The more I see of people, the more I regret I survived the war. He even accused the U.S. Treasury Secretary of Semitic revenge against Germany., On July 16, the Potsdam Conference convened, and Patton, resplendent with 20 stars and ivory-handled pistols, was in Berlin to see Truman preside over the raising of the American flag in the U.S. sector of the divided former German capital. Shortly after Beatrice Patton buried her husband, Gen. George S. Patton Jr., on Christmas Eve 1945, she summoned a woman named Jean Gordon to her hotel room in Boston. After the German surrender, Patton campaigned vigorously for a command in the Pacific theatre in the ongoing war against Japan. This is a bit off topic but perhaps you might clarify something for me. This is the only language they understand and respect. The result . By not listening to him when he wanted to re-arm the German army, put him in charge with his third army and kick to Russians back to where they belong has been proven to be the worst blunder in military history. Pattons final command was to head the Fifteenth U.S. Army in Bad Nauheim, Germany, where he oversaw the writing of a history of the war in Europe, a role Patton described as serving as an undertaker at my own funeral. On December 9, 1945, Patton sustained serious injuries to his head and spine in a low-speed car accident; after 12 days of terrible pain, he died. George Patton was also the great-grandfather of Major General George Patton IV, who died in 2004. Photo Credit: A million people lined the 25-mile parade route leading to the Hatch Memorial Shell in Boston, where General Patton delivered a war bonds speech. Dead from injuries sustained in a car crash after the close of WWII, General George S. Patton, Jr. left in his wake a tremendous legacy. He was no fan of the Atomic Bomb -or perhaps that it was largely a creation of Jewish minds His idea of what war was supposed to be was forever changed by atomic weapons.. His attack based agenda worked.. and yes had he been given sufficient resources, the war would have been much shorter and many lives would have been spared as a result The history of Europe since WWII would have been very different. My chief interest in establishing order in Germany was to prevent Germany from going communistic. The American press had guaranteed him a heros welcome. During his first speech that morning he had told his audience that the fact that a soldier was killed in action often made him a fool rather than a hero. I am afraid that our foolish and utterly stupid policy will certainly cause them to join the Russians and thereby ensure a communistic state throughout Western Europe. Military career. Allied friends and acquaintances walked behind the casket. Patton was offered command of the Fifteenth Army an army in name only since its sole mission was to prepare a history of the war in Europe! He died Dec. 21, and was buried in a military cemetery in Luxembourg.
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